Minifig. This guy is quite rubbery and unlike Lego minifigs. It also has a fair amount of articulation.

Parts 1. The double Sided 1x2 Plates in the middle are interesting, as are the T Bar Plates at the top. Down in the bottom right corner is the reason I grabbed this set, a textured 2x2 Round Plate. It'll look great as a starship engine. You could probably stack up those pieces that look like bars of Silver and make a Station out of them.

Parts 2. The clear bits are part of the stand for the final model

The Questions:Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Maybe. You can probably pull a Station out of this. (+0)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Above. (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If
you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have
parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: C+ (-10). The pricing on these just kills the score. The mold cost on that minifig must have be pretty high. They are going for ~$5 or $6 on Clearance so it does drop the PpP down to a reasonable level.

Friday, September 26, 2014

Bag. $3.49 at target for 39 pieces is a Price per Piece of $0.09. I think this is the only affordable set in the whole Arctic line. {*checks notes*} Yup, it is.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts. Those new ski pieces should be interesting. Three taps are also nice, along with a printed 2x2 no stud Slope piece. Two 1x2 Mod. Plates w/Horizontal Clip always come in handy. I'm not sure about the propellor though. There is a fair amount of Orange in this set, which I always like.

Frigate. It's aquick build for MFZ:IO. Sets that are planes or things resembling planes are an good base for Intercept Orbit creations. Stats: 2Rd+d8/1Y/1G/2W.

The Questions:

Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Yes. I made an IO Frigate. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: A- (+10). I like this set. I think if you combine it with one of the Series 2 Orange Mixels you could have the basis for a really good frame.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

It's been a while since I've been heretical, so let's go Kre-O again. :-)

Package. A MSRP of $3.99 for 37 pieces gives us a price per piece of $0.11.

Instructions, Stickers, & Paperwork.

Micro-Kreons. I like the head on the orange one. The hair piece on the cyborg is kinda interesting too.

Parts. The 1x1-1x3 brackets in the lower part of the picture are the only really interesting bits in this set. The mono-body piece is a little disappointing.

A quick creation to see what could be built. A micro-Frigate for IO, since it's only half the normal size limit. MFZ:IO Stats: 2Rd+d8 (fore cannons) /1Y (side antenna)/1G/2W.

The Questions:

Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Yes. I made an IO Frigate. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Above. (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: B- (-5). Yeah, it's a parts kit.

Green. The first member of the Block Chest family constructed with
the new ball joints. I didn't have enough of some of the standard leg
pieces so I changed them for this iteration. Brickshelf gallery.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the continuing evolution of the Block Chest frame.

The second uses the 2x2 Modified Plate w/Towball and the Receptacle Plate as the base combination to attach the legs. This also features another change, the addition of small arms in the form of a Bar Holder w/Clip. I'll have to go back and see how well they attach to the older versions of my Crab Mecha.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Parts. A fair amount of Clips, two lampholders, plenty of Trans-color pieces, my current favorite part -- 1x2 Modified Plate w/Bar (open ends) -- and my favorite part when I was a kid -- 1x2 Modified Plate w/ Handles -- some slopes, some antennas, some plates, and a big Trans-Clear Windscreen that may be useful as part of a station.

Minifig. Another set of mostly useless pieces.

Frigate. I'm pretty proud of this.

The Questions:Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Below. (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If
you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have
parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: A- (+10). I tried building a frame but it wasn't that great. Further experimentation might yield some interesting creations.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Thanks, Yoda. One of the great things about MFZ is that we are not limited to a particular scale by the playing pieces (Can we really call them miniatures?) that we use. There is a continuum across which we can express our preference for play. All that matters is that the playing pieces be distinct and sturdy enough to stand up to the rigors of play. While the main choices seem to be 4P and 7P, the latter of which is the nominal scale for the game as published, I've seen battle reports from people who play at 2P scale though!

All of which is a long way of introducing one of my latest creations, the Nano Frame. I'm declaring this guy to be 1P scale. Which means that it's 54 feet tall in scale. Not bad for something three bricks tall.

While the Frame designs provided with the MFZ rulebook are 7P scale, maybe it's time to start looking at some of the other scales and seeing how they might look on the gaming table. I know I use the microfig a lot as a size reference as that's an easy way to establish a 6P scale. Take a crack at it and see what you come up with.

Kart. I wasn't really satisfied with this so I rebuilt it. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the new build.

The Questions:Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? At. (0) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If
you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have
parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: B+ (+5). I struggled to build something decent out of this. But along with the Repair Lift Polybag and a bunch of other parts you could make a decent looking squad of vehicle frames.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Paradox Boy has been kind enough to share his Google Drive folder with PDF instructions and .lxf files. It looks like the PDF instructions are for builds other than his own and the .lxf files are for his creations. There may be a few PDFs that weren't in the last big instruction set.

The Questions:Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Yes. (+5)Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? At. (0) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes. (+5)Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? No. (-5)Score: B+ (+5). Not a bad little set despite the minifig. I could see myself fielding a force all based around this set.

I was never happy with the one stud connection of the Travis Brick to the "spine". Switching to the new design also saves me four Pneuma-Ts.

It does take away some of the vertical mobility of the legs but it's a sturdier connection and lowers the overall height. I'm also filling out the lower legs and reinforcing the knee connection so it doesn't pop free every time you bend them.

Old

New

Second I'm going to replace the current spine with a 1/2 Technic Pin w/2L Bar Extension. This will fit through the 1x2 Technic Brick that is the current core of the upper torso. This means that I'll have to flip the head over so that the back of the Headlight Brick now mounts on the 1x1 Round Plate instead of the front.

Old

New

The third change is where it gets a little tricky. I have to figure out a way to mount ball joints as the shoulders. Which, as it turns out, wasn't so tricky. I just used the arm design from my Warden frame. I may experiment in future with other arm designs.

So here's the end result. It may have lost a little height but it's more expressive. What do you think?